Charges filed in fatal crash

COLUMBIANA — The Ohio State Highway Patrol today announced that Ashley Ratkowski, 23, of Youngstown, has been charged with two first-degree counts of vehicular homicide in the Sept. 8 crash that claimed the lives of two people.

Lewis Morris, 80, and his wife, Elizabeth, 77, both of Leetonia, were pronounced dead at the scene by the Mahoning County coroner’s office.

According to police, Ratkowski, 23, was driving a Dodge Caliber north on state Route 46, and Thomas Johnson, 49, of Warren was driving a tractor tailer in the same direction about 3:55 p.m.

Lewis and Elizabeth Morris were in a 2000 Ford pickup truck southbound on Route 46. William Naughton, 61, of Columbiana also was traveling south in a 2000 Dodge Intrepid south along the same road.

Reports say Ratkowski traveled left of center and struck the truck driven by Lewis Morris, causing the truck to go left of center and strike the tractor trailor driven by Johnson.